Illusion
by Nesiy Lemon
Summary: Ginny kept herself busy as a way to deal with what happened in the Chamber of Secrets, wanting to move on with her life, but Tom Riddle managed to find his way back to her, even after his diary had been destroyed.


**A/N:** I'm sorry for any mistakes, English is not my first language.

* * *

Ginny stared out the window in front of her. It was not a real sight she was seeing, just a spell that mimicked a clearing of some forest at night, but it was distracting and she was thankful for it. She swang her feet centimetres above the immaculately white floor under her bed, making her nigh gown slip down leaving an exposed white shoulder.

A noise behind her made her turn around startled. One of the other patients had risen and assaulted one of the healers, another healer walked in after and crossed the room in a few quick steps to pull the curtains around her bed so she would be spared from what was going on, with his wand in hand, ready to cast a spell of immobilization in the patient.

"I won't accept any more tests!" The witch screamed. "I will not take any more potions!" Ginny could hear her struggle on the floor.

Ginny pulled her legs up and buried her face in her knees.

Eventually the other patient was calmed down and healers left, leaving the room in silence, but Ginny could not relax and sleep. Her parents had spent the afternoon with her, keeping her company while the healers made their exams, but they had to go home after the visits period was over. They had left her with a good supply of Chocolate Frogs to try to keep her happy, and Ginny had done her best to look happy and pleased, show them that she was feeling better, but it was hard.

Even after what happened throughout that year, Ginny had decided to stay at Hogwarts and finish her exams, she wanted to show everyone that what had happened in the Chamber of Secrets had not affected her in any way, but the truth was that Ginny did not want to go home, she wanted to keep her life as normal and busy as possible.

She had no friends to share her feelings about it anyway.

Her parents although reticent about her decision to stay at Hogwarts those last weeks, decided not to counter her...

Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws united and tried to give her some support when she walked down the hallways or had dinner near the door of the Great Hall; after all it was a horrible thing to happen to a student on her first year, but she could not say the same about the Slytherins, she would pass through them and they would make comments and call her Mrs. Riddle, but she would ignore them and walk with her head up.

She had survived.

The only thing that really bothered her was the feeling of being constantly watched and from time to time she would catch a shadow of someone in the corner of her eye, but when Ginny turned to see who was it, there was no one there.

What happened had been horrible, but Hogwarts was one of the safest places in the country to be and there was nothing in the castle that could hurt her anymore. Ginny knew that, and she had hold the diary in her hand and touched the Basilisk's fang, she could feel the diary was empty, that tingling that she had begun to feel on her fingertips when she touched the cover, was gone. It was nothing more then an old notebook with a black cover.

Tom Riddle was dead.

"Ginny, what is it? What keeps scaring you?"

"Tom, go away." Muttered Ginny not raising her face from her knees.

Tom sighed and pulled the night gown to the correct position over Ginny's shoulder, making her shiver. "I really wish I could... you know?" He said calmly, unmoved by her words. "I do not like to see you alone, especially here."

When he touched her skin to put a lock of her hair behind her ear, it made Ginny look up. "I want to be alone Tom, I do not need you or want to be with you right now... or ever…" She muttered. "It was you who got me into this mess..." She put her face back against her knees for a moment before looking at him again. "And you do not exist anymore..."

"If I was not real, I would not be here." Tom objected, tired, she had become odd, saying one thing then saying the complete opposite afet.

Tom put her hair again behind her ear to try to better see her face. "If I was not real, I would not be able to touch you do you. Don't you remember how it was in the beginning? You could barely see me." He smiled, feeling nostalgic for a time that was much simple than this.

Ginny turned her face away from Tom, crawling back until she was almost siting on top of her pillow and stared at him with hatred, making him look away to the enchanted landscape in the window.

It was his fault if she was there, he had done this, he was the one to blame.

When school finally ended Ginny did not went home in peace, and during the first week she tried to keep herself as busy as possible; helping her mother in all the tasks she could, cleaning the garden, going to the nearest village to buy groceries; she even asked Hermione if she could borrow her second year books!

In the second week, Ginny began to see Tom.

At first he was very far away, usually leaning against the tree she liked to climb and where she begun to write in the notebook that had find its way in to her hands. In the following week Tom was leaning against the garden fence, and Ginny no longer left the house by the kitchen's door or went anywhere near that side of the property. Ginny tried to ignore him, but whenever she looked out of the kitchen's window, or at the office on the first floor, Tom looked at her and smiled.

Eventually one night, she woke up with Tom sitting in the armchair across her room, legs crossed, his arm resting on the armchair's arm and resting his chin on his hand while looking at her and smiling. Ginny did not scream but left the room as fast as she could and ran to the living room, to the corner between the sofa and the wall that so many times she had used to hide from her brothers during their games. She shrank as much as possible when Tom steps made the wood of the stair crack as he walked down.

After that, Tom just spent his days following her around like some shadow, trying to get her to talk to him and touching her. It made her weary and nervous and her family soon started to wonder what was going on with her.

"Studying again?" Fred asked one afternoon.

"It's not normal..." Said George leaning over the back of the couch, putting his chin on Ginny's shoulder, a completely impossible position for him to be comfortable at.

"Who are you trying to ignore?" They asked.

Ginny closed the book and took a deep breath. It was not worth keeping it all to herself, she knew that what was going on was not normal. "I'm ignoring Tom."

"Hmm?"

"Tom who?" Asked Fred flipping through the book Ginny had been reading.

"Tom Riddle."

George fell from his already precarious position, while Fred rushed out the room throwing the book to the nearest couch, and calling for their mother. The next half hour was spent with Molly panicking, not knowing exactly what to do since the diary had been destroyed. Arthur was called from the Ministry, but Dumbledore still managed to get to The Burrow faster than him.

"For how long have you see him?" Asked the Professor, ignoring that Tom was sitting near him with a smirk on his lips.

Ginny did not answer.

"Ginny?"

She started from the beginning without raising her head once to look at him.

"I think it would be better if you took her to St. Mungo's, they have healer specialized in this kind of situation, I will also try to contact the Ministry of Magic, I want them to send a team from the Department of Mysteries there." Dumbledore said to Molly and Arthur, then he focused on Ginny again. "Surely you do not know about the sheet that was torn from the diary, do you now?"

Ginny looked at Dumbledore for the first time, surprised by his question. "Sheet?"

"Yes, I believe there was a sheet torn from the diary. Did you do that?"

"No professor, it was already like that." Tom could not resist laughing loudly, which startled Ginny.

"Ginny?"

"He is behind you, sir."

Everyone in the room looked behind Professor Dumbledore, but the armchair was empty.

Ginny spent the first night in a private room reserved for children in St. Mungus, and was subject to a number of tedious tests and exams which the results showed no evidence of curses or spells. The team from the Ministry had come with all the information about Horcruxes they had, but could not help her, and the specialist in St. Mungo's ended up recommending a colleague who was better than him regarding the side effects of possessions and that, after knowing what exactly was Ginny's hallucination, he couldn't find the courage to put her together with the other children and transferred her to the adult's wing, that was reserved for emergencies with wizards with mental disorders.

A healer spoke with Ginny every morning of the time she spent there; her the treatment was based on removing a pleasant and a less pleasant memory, and then plunge them both in a Pensieve to analyse them until she stopped seeing Tom, making logic overtake fear, making mends with what happened during the year so that she could see that now, this Tom was nothing but the result of her imagination.

But all the healer was doing, was making Ginny remember things that she did not know she had done and make her start having nightmares.

The memory that the healer liked to use the most, was the last that Ginny had with Tom, when she was called to the Chamber for the last time. Ginny never managed to remember how she got there, but with the help of the healer, Ginny could now see herself walking down the stairs of the girls' dormitory, going through the long, deserted corridors of the school and enter the abandoned girl's bathroom of the third floor.

"Where do you think you're going?" Shouted Murta coming up her favourite toilet. "This bathroom is not working! I've told you to not come back here!"

Ginny had simply ignored the dull ghost, and whispering to the tap to open, and jumped down.

Then the rest she could remember it like it was yesterday. Tom walking down the hall towards her, a solid figure with an easy step and a warm smile on his lips that never rose to his eyes, his cloak billowing behind him.

"I thought you were not coming." Tom said like he was not the one responsible for her presence there.

"How could I not come?" Ginny answered. She knew it was with sacrifice that Tom adopted a solid body "What do you need help with?" She didn't remember Tom asking her for anything, but she did not care. It made her feel useful and wanted.

"Nothing too special, I just want you to die." Tom grabbed her by the hair with a movement to fast for her to react, and began to drag her down the aisle throwing her to the foot of Salazar Slytherin's statue. Ginny shouted and begged him to free her, but Tom just sat over her stomach and pinned her hands beside her head. A mess of red hair underneath her.

"I promise it won't hurt." Said Tom lowering a little more towards it, a wicked smile on his lips and mad glance on his eyes. "Much."

Ginny started crying, tears sliding down to her hair while she tried to break free from his hold.

The touch of Tom's lips on hers made her stop and open the eyes in horror, and the last thing she saw was Tom being surrounded by a strong, golden light.

The healer told her that light was the link between her life and Tom Riddle's soul, but with dairy destroyed, there was no reason to worry, that bound had been broken before it was completed.

"How?" Ginny asked.

"Because Professor Dumbledore said so." Answered the healer.

But that was that morning and now Ginny merely extend her leg and kicked Tom on his hip, making him get up from her bed.

"Go away!" Shouted Ginny, but Tom merely rolled his eyes and sat back. "Why are you still here? The diary is gone!" Ginny lowered her voice, hoping that her cry had not attracted anyone.

"You know why. You know very well why I'm here, and you also know that I hate this!" Tom said leaning towards Ginny, his face just a few inches from hers.

"The idea was yours!" She accused

Tom did not answer and sat back straight, returning his attention to the window and its enchanted view.

"I did not know my plan was going to fail, that boyfriend of yours…"

"Harry is n-"

Tom did not let her continue with her juvenile response, waving at her to stop.

"I underestimated him, underestimated my own theory about the Horcruxes and now I am not even the shadow of who I was, and I'm stuck with a spoiled little girl..." Tom sniffed, annoyed by the details of his current existence.

"I…"

"Let me go Ginny." Tom looked at Ginny, his blue eyes with a hint of sadness. "After everything I did to you, how can you not let me go."

"But..."

Tom rubbed the bridge of his nose, visibly tired and fell back in to the mattress, fingers interlaced over his chest.

"You were my only friend, I did not though that sheet would leave you stuck here... I just wanted to keep a memory of you." Ginny sat over her legs, her knees almost touching his arm, and leaned over him.

Tom opened his eyes and Ginny watched him carefully, red hair falling in the direction of his hands. He picked up a strand and played with it between his long fingers.

"If you were older, I think I would not mind to stay for a little longer." Tom laughed making Ginny roll her eyes and slightly blush. "But it would still not be worth it. My goal was never to stay with you forever, just enough for you to give me the power I needed. Nothing else."

"I know." Ginny closed her eyes and sat back, and Tom rested his hands over his chest again.

"Where's the sheet?"

"Oh Tom..." Ginny was starting to feel like crying, but she decided it was not worth it.

"Let me see it." He ordered.

Ginny stretched to reach the small table beside the bed, where a volume of "Tales of Beedle the Bard" was. Tom could not touch the diary so he sat again, facing Ginny, one foot dangling on the side without touching the ground.

The sheet marked Tom's favourite part: "The Tale of the Three Brothers", but she actually did not have to mark it since the spine of the book had long been broken, and it just opened there.

"Ginny? It's everything alright?" One of the night shift's healers peeked through the curtain. "Any nightmares?"

Ginny looked at Tom, who looked at her with a raised eyebrow, and then back to the healer not knowing what to say. "Yes! I mean, no!" Ginny took a deep breath. "Everything is alright." The healer smiled. "I'm just reading."

"How do people don't know you are lying to them? You're terrible at it."

"Will you read me the story one last time?" She asked Tom ignoring his observation, removing the diary's sheet from the book and extending it to Tom.

"One last time? This means that after this you will tear the sheet and let me go?" Tom asked with some doubts.

"Yes..." Ginny tried to smile but could not so very well.

"Very well." Since he could not force her to do anything she didn't want, he had no other choice, and he laid back down again and put her pillow under his head, trying to get comfortable to read.

Time seemed to fly when he started to speak. Ginny laid her head on Tom's stomach, holding the sheet against her hearth. She lost herself on the rhythmic raise of his stomach that accompanied his breath, the distant beating of his heart. Ginny was not paying attention to what he was reading, because there were to many things she needed to memorize, like the smell of his clothes, the movement of his elegant jaw when he pronounced each syllable, the raised eyebrow, his blue eyes.

 _"And then he greeted Death as an old friend, and was satisfied with it and, as equals, left this life."_ Tom finished.

With the last sentence of the story, Ginny began to tear the paper, reducing it to seven bits has he had once told her. Tom put the book on his chest and began to fade, without even giving her a goodbye, and the book eventually fell on the sheets along with her head.

There was nothing to say.

The next morning Ginny was woken up by the healer from the previous night.

"Did you tear a page from your book Ginny?" He asked with the book in his hand, trying to find the page missing. "Which one is it?" He took the ripped paper from her and tried to make sense of it. "A draft of a composition about giants?" He asked uncertain.

"Hmm?" Ginny took the pieces of paper from the healer's hands, the pieces that belonged to Tom's diary, were now, nothing more than a rough draft of a homework that Tom had once helped her with.

"How's Tom?" Asked the healer, as he did every day.

"He... he is not here." She answered without taking her confused eyes from the paper.

"No? When will he come back?"

"He is not going to come back." Ginny looked at the healer who had been sitting on the edge of the bed, with the book on his lap. "I do not why he is gone but he is, and I want to go home.

"Are you sure he's gone?" Insisted the healer.

"Yes, I ... No, he was never here." Ginny handed the paper back to the healer, and took the book and opened in the usual place." Tom died with the diary, he was never here with me. It's over."

The healers made her stay for another couple night to make sure she was alright, that she was not lying, and then they released her.

The first night back on her bed at The Burrow was weird and she had a hard time falling asleep, turning from one side to the other but her eyes always falling on the armchair across her room.

Then, in the next morning, the smell of her mother's breakfast wafted through the house, Ginny slowly got up, enjoying the mild atmosphere that enveloped her. Without bothering to change clothes she walked down the stairs and quickly regretted that decision.

In the living room, a boy with completely dishevelled black hair turned to her alarmed, not expecting to see her. He pushed his glasses that were slipping by the bridge of her nose and smiled.

"Good morning Ginny."

Ginny froze and did not answer, she just turn back and return to run into the room while she heard Ron talk to Harry.

In the safety of her bedroom, sitting on the edge of the bed, she looked at the armchair where Tom liked to sit and decided it was time to turn the page, definitely. She showered, dressed for the day, she moved the furniture around the room, making the chair disappear behind the door and away from her eye view, and put all the toys in a box that she would ask one of her brothers to take it to the attic when they had time.

Then, Ginny went downstairs.


End file.
